Exchanges are beginning to grow up, but they are still young

Last week, Jeff Sprecher, chief executive of the Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange, which has inked a deal to buy NYSE Euronext for $8.2bn, was asked for his views on the structure of the US equity market. Sprecher, an engineer by training, told it straight: “Patently absurd,” was how he described some of the pricing practices at US stock markets.